Remember when comics used to be fun? Kids used to devour the stuff! Not anymore. They've abandoned them and who can blame them? Now comics are for adults.
Boy, adults really messed up. Here's some samples from a new, hardcover comics anthology that's in the bookstores now. (click to enlarge). It's called "An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons and True Stories." In an effort to explain the title the editor tells us:
"In comics words and pictures are not a mixture but an emulsion. Perhaps calligraphy might be a more apt, if still incomplete, metaphor. the cartoonist uses his own set of marks (or 'visual handwriting') to establish a consistent visual vocabulary in which to communicate experience, memory, and imagination..."
Translated into English that reads, "Expect nothing heroic, manly or interesting. Let us introduce you to characters you'd never want to meet, doing things you'd never want to do. This is the end of Western civilization and perhaps you'd like a comic to read while you're contemplating suicide!"
The character in the last panel (above) says, "...there are worse things than being in prison. Just being alive is worse. Maybe if we're really lucky someone will strangle us in our sleep!"
Here's (above) a rousing story.
Sorry for the slanted frame (above). Maybe the slant will add a little interest to the obsessive horizontals and verticals.
What is this modern obsession with sterility? The whole second half of the 20th century is full of it: shoebox architecture, abstract bebop, Heiddeger, Derrida, giant canvases containing just one color, political correctness, emos, museum shows that are just a bunch of sand and broken glass on the floor, boring novels, ...well, it would be a long list. What's going on?
Gee, art comics are a pretty depressing subject. I'm going to scroll back to the naked girls!